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Extended Metaphor
Definition: A metaphor that continues over multiple sentences, and that is sometimes extended throughout an entire work.
Why Writers Use it: Extended metaphors allow writers to draw a larger comparison between two things or ideas. In rhetoric,
they allow the audience to visualize a complex idea in a memorable way or tangible. They highlight a comparison in a more
intense way than simple metaphors or similes.
If someone was unloving, you could simply say that their heart was ice. But if you wanted to really drive home the point, you
might say, “Their heart was icy, their blood frosty, their ventricles filled with icicles, their words turning to ice cubes that would
chill an already chilly iced tea.” This example also elucidates the dangers of extended metaphor. When used poorly, extended
metaphors can be a little much.
When used correctly, they can be quite impactful and meaningful.
Directions: As you navigate your way through the poem, stop after every few lines to write down your thoughts and ideas about
the phrases and words being used. Then, you need to write your reflection. Keep in mind this is a writing assignment and will
go into the gradebook with a weighted grade of 40%.
Name: ___________________________
"Play Crack the Sky"
We sent out the SOS call.
It was a quarter past four in the morning when the storm broke our second anchor line.
Four months at sea, four months of calm seas to be pounded in the shallows off the tip of Montauk Point.
They call them rogues, they travel fast and alone.
One-hundred-foot faces of God's good ocean gone wrong.
What they call love is a risk, cause you will always get hit out of nowhere by some wave and end up on your own.
The hole in the hull defied the crew’s attempts to bail us out.
And flooded the engines and radio and half buried bow.
Your tongue is a rudder.
It steers the whole ship.
Sends your words past your lips or keeps them safe behind your teeth.
But the wrong words will strand you.
Come off course while you sleep.
Sweep your boat out to sea or dashed to bits on the reef.
The vessel groans the ocean pressures its frame.
To the port I see the lighthouse through the sleet and rain.
And I wish for one more day to give my love and repay debts.
But the morning finds our bodies washed up thirty miles west.
They say that the captain stays fast with the ship through still and storm.
But this ain't the Dakota, and the water is cold.
We won't have to fight for long.
This is the end.
